Let’s begin with some good news for a cloudy January day. The U.S. economy added 312,000 jobs in December, Economists had predicted nonfarm payrolls would rise by 176,000. November results, initially reported at ( a lower than expected) 155,000 jobs gain was revised upward to 176,000. Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4 percent. The total new manufacturing jobs came to 284,000 for 2018. That’s two-hundred eighty four thousand jobs.

Construction, retail, restaurant all posted job gains. Democrats have been trying to talk the economy down, but it didn’t work.